Introduction

IAM RoadSmart has a mission to make better drivers and riders in order to improve road safety, inspire confidence and make driving and riding enjoyable. It does this through a range of courses for all road users, from online assessments through to the advanced driving and riding tests. The organisation has 92,000 members and campaigns on road safety on their behalf.

This is our second annual report on the opinions, attitudes and behaviour of British drivers. Once again it makes interesting reading, confirming as it does a clear shift towards concerns about new technology and its use on our roads. It is of course too early to pick out definitive trends after only two surveys and our plan for next year is to start to present information on change to provide new insights for our stakeholders and government.

In the meantime it is clear that the worries and concerns of Britain’s 32 million drivers must be listened to. Whilst we can all take more responsibility for our actions a focus on distraction and congestion is already emerging as a popular choice from drivers. New road building and smart motorways will help with congestion, but our survey has shown that UK motorists increasingly perceive evolving mobile phone technology and use as a threat to their personal safety. Now more than ever it is important that government, road safety bodies and car makers work together to allay the fear caused by distracted drivers. Recent tragic high profile cases underline the need for a combination of education, safe design and better enforcement to make sure that the high-tech benefits of our modern cars outweigh any downsides.

The results are based on an online survey of just over 2000 motorists weighted by region and age group to be representative of UK motorists as a whole. IAM RoadSmart would like to thank the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety for sharing the concept with us and Lake Market Research for conducting the survey work.